Thai Coalition Struggles to Form New Government

By PHILIP SHENON,

Published: May 29, 1992

BANGKOK, Thailand, May 28—
Rival politicians struggled today to form a new Thai government amid implied threats from the nation's military leaders that they would oust any civilian government that attempted to punish them for last week's violent crackdown on democracy demonstrators.

The military leaders have made it clear that they will not tolerate a criminal investigation of their role in the crackdown, in which scores and possibly hundreds of people died, diplomats and Thai officials said.

The officials and diplomats said that the armed forces appeared to be searching for an excuse to stage another coup. Members of Parliament seemed aware of the generals' threat as they negotiated today over the formation of a government to replace that of Suchinda Kraprayoon, who resigned as Prime Minister on Sunday after taking "political responsibility" for last week's bloodshed.

The five-party coalition that controls Parliament has nominated a political leader with close ties to the military, Somboon Rahong of the Chat Thai party, to replace Mr. Suchinda. But opposition parties have warned that Mr. Somboon's appointment as Prime Minister could lead to a resumption of street demonstrations.

The opposition leader, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, said in an interview today that the public would not accept the appointment of Mr. Somboon, a former air force officer, and that the five-party coalition would collapse within weeks.

The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Bangkok, today quoted the Thai Army commander, Gen. Issarapong Noonpackdee, as warning that politicians and others demanding retribution for last week's violence should not "force me into becoming a cornered dog." The warning was reportedly made at a private meeting Tuesday with Mr. Suchinda, who is his brother-in-law.

General Issarapong, Mr. Suchinda and the nation's supreme military commander, Chief Marshal Kaset Rojananil, have been out of public view since the weekend, and their whereabouts are unknown.

A senior Western diplomat said that while he did not think a coup was imminent, "the generals want the threat out and understood." He said he doubted that military leaders would actually stage a coup because it might provoke "a popular uprising that the military couldn't hope to control -- a revolution this time."

Many Thais have demanded that Mr. Suchinda, who was a general at the time he was appointed Prime Minister, and his top military deputies be placed on trial for the murder of the pro-democracy protesters who were gunned down last week. A Government tribunal is now trying to determine the constitutionality of an amnesty decree, issued under Mr. Suchinda's name last weekend, that would bar the prosecution of him and his deputies.

The public's fury over the crackdown has grown as Bangkok was flooded this week with bootleg videotapes of foreign television reports of the street clashes, including scenes of soldiers viciously beating demonstrators that had been censored by the state-run Thai television.

At Bangkok's Tammasat University, several videocassette players had been set up today to screen the tapes, and there was stunned silence as students and others saw the violent scenes for the first time.

The official death toll from last week's violence rose today to 49. Most of the dead were killed by soldiers who fired indiscriminately into crowds of anti-government protesters in the streets of Bangkok.

But there are widespread reports that many more actually died, and that elements of the Thai armed forces, hoping to keep the official death count low, were hiding the bodies of many of those killed.

Private humanitarian groups who are trying to compile a list of all the people who disappeared said today that nearly 800 people are still missing.

Mr. Chavalit, the opposition leader and a retired army general, said he believed that if bodies are being hidden by the military, they would eventually be located. "Nothing can be hidden nowadays," he said.